The winning project of the third edition of our Star Photobook Dummy Award has become a reality. The photobook I Imagined It Empty (Yo la imaginé vacía in its Spanish edition), by the American artist Ruth Lauer Manenti is now on sale, through the award’s collaborating publishers: Phree, Ediciones Posibles and RM.
In May 2024, the author visits Spain to present it in Barcelona on Friday, May 3, at 6:30 p.m., in Villa Alegre (Via Augusta st., 175) – headquarters of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, organizer of the Award – and in Madrid on Tuesday, May 7, also at 6:30 p.m., at La Fábrica (Verónica st., 13).
I Imagined It Empty, a poetic reflection about death
The photobook I Imagined It Empty is a silent and moving contemplation of life and the desire to find solace and presence within the walls of the place we choose to call home, suggesting the idea that our homes accomodate the spirit of our loved ones by filling the space with memories.
Poetic and nostalgic, the book presents an evocative collection of images inspired by photographs the author took of her mother shortly before her death. It is a tender tribute honoring the mother’s artistic legacy, while also reflecting on the themes of loss and the transitory nature of life.
The emotional and intimate atmosphere of the environment and the beauty of everyday life are in harmony with the values that the Star Photobook Dummy Award wants to celebrate. The award was established in 2021, in memory of Inés Casals, a talented photobook designer and art director who died prematurely in 2020.
About the author, Ruth Lauer Manenti
Ruth Lauer Manenti is a draftsman and painter. She earned an MFA from the Yale School of Art in 1995. In 2012, she was given a large format camera and taught herself to use it in a way that took advantage of her skills as a painter.
She received a NYFA Fellowship in Photography in 2016 and his book Remnants was included in an exhibition at The Griffin Museum of Photography. She also had a solo exhibition at The Center for Photography at Woodstock in New York in 2020. She is currently pursuing an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Photography from the University of Hartford, where he received a merit scholarship to further her studies.
Ruth’s mother was also an artist and left behind a legacy of unknown works. Part of Ruth’s ambitions as an artist is to reward her mother for her efforts and create continuity between their work.
Lauer Manenti is a first-generation American whose parents arrived from Europe as refugees during World War II. Ruth’s father was able to find beauty in a hole in his shirt and often spoke of impermanence and fragility. His mother was grateful that there was a tree that she could admire from the kitchen window while she did the dishes. Although her parents endured much suffering, they lived with a poetic sensitivity that Ruth has inherited from them.
Since Ruth broke her neck in a car accident at the age of twenty, she developed a life and a spiritual practice that she integrates into her photographic work. She lives in the Catskill Mountains, New York, with her husband, a nurse and tai chi practitioner, and their three cats.
About the Star Photobook Dummy Award
The project I Imagined it Empty by Ruth Lauer Manenti, nominated by the collector and photobook expert Gabriela Cendoya-Bergareche, was the winner of the third edition of the Star Photobook Dummy Award, which included the participation of 108 dummies, with authors (half of the participants are women) from 36 countries.
The Star Photobook Dummy Award is an annual international award that makes it possible to publish a photobook, based on a dummy in its final design and ideation phase.
This award is organized by the Photographic Social Vision Foundation and directed by the editor and international photography expert Arianna Rinaldo, in collaboration with the publishers Phree, Ediciones Posibles and RM. It was established in 2021 as a tribute to the creativity of the graphic designer Inés Casals (Barcelona, 1970-2020), who was the art director of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation.
The call for the IV Star Photobook Dummy Award is open from April 8 to June 8. Participation is only through nomination (see list of international nominators in this link).
More information about the Star Photobook Dummy Award in this link.
